G-P receives proposal for buying mill Old Town facility must be sold by company’s May 15 deadline

OLD TOWN – One potential buyer has submitted a proposal for what it would do with the Georgia-Pacific Corp. facility, while a second party is expected to hand in its plan for the idled paper mill today, Crystal Canney, spokeswoman for Gov. John Baldacci, said Monday evening.

Details on the proposals were unavailable.

The clock on a potential deal is ticking. May 15 marks the end of the 60-day period to which G-P has agreed to keep the mill operational to allow the state time to find a buyer. When the mill shut down in mid-March, more than 400 people were left without jobs. In addition to closing the mill, G-P closed its four chip mills in Milo, Costigan, Houlton and Portage.

Monday was the deadline for interested buyers to respond to G-P’s conditions for purchase of the Old Town mill, but things didn’t look promising until near the end of the day.

As of 2:30 p.m., the company had received no official responses, G-P Atlanta spokesman Robert Burns said.

“They were expecting some later today,” Burns said at about 5:30 p.m., but had no update. The governor’s office, which is monitoring the process, later confirmed a proposal was received by the company.

State Economic Development Commissioner Jack Cashman said earlier Monday: “We’re going to have to have some kind of a deal within the next few weeks.”

On April 20, G-P sent to nine potential buyers the asset purchase agreement outlining the sale terms. Cashman said Monday he anticipated that two or three interested parties would have responded.

G-P hadn’t informed Cashman as of Monday afternoon how many interested buyers had responded.

Cashman said last week that the state reviewed the purchase agreement drafted by G-P before it went out and that the state would have a hand in reviewing the responses.

“We’ll be meeting with G-P folks later this week to talk about where we are,” Cashman said Monday. “There’s a lot of issues that need to be worked through here.”

Last week, Cashman said that three and possibly more potential buyers are interested in using the entire mill facility.

“They have different business models,” he said. “Our concern is looking at the one that makes the most sense long term. We want this to be a long-term commitment, a plan that has a future opportunity for success.”

The Local 80 papermakers union has been working with state officials on finding a buyer, and the most recent update on the union’s Web site said that the process with potential buyers is continuing to progress well.

“No other information is available at this time,” the April 27 update read. “A meeting with Georgia-Pacific representatives is scheduled for May 3 to continue discussion over the effects of the closure.”

Old Town City Manager Peggy Daigle also remained positive that Baldacci and Cashman would be able to find a buyer.

“If anything, we’ll remain hopeful and optimistic that the next 15 days brings closure to the situation,” she said.